Sense Versus Sensibility
by Julia451
Summary: One-shot. Follow-up to "Let The Storm Rage On." As Elsa remembers her encounter with Dr. Banner, she's puzzled about the strange, new feeling she's had ever since she said good-bye to her new friend. Anna, of course, is eager to share her own theory on the subject...


"This isn't fair! They should have let me go!"

I rolled my eyes but grinned as I asked my sister, "Don't you remember what happened last time you went along with Kristoff's crew, Anna? It took me two hours to unfreeze all of them."

Anna turned towards me from the window where she was sitting. "It was an accident! I paid for all the damages, didn't I?"

Still unable to contain my smile, I said, "Yes, but give them more time to recover before they consider doing that again."

She turned back to the window where she was watching for her husband's return. "Ugh! Who ever heard of a prince harvesting ice anyway? Why do you let him do that?"

"He may be the prince now, but he still enjoys his old job. It's what he does for fun – you wouldn't want me to make him to give that up, would you?"

Anna sighed and grinned back at me. "No, I just... I just miss him."

I put my hand on her shoulder. "He'll be home soon. Make sure to have a smile waiting for him." I gave her a kiss on the cheek and headed down the hallway, knowing she wouldn't want me to spoil her chance to play the tragic heroine pining for her lost love who'd been gone for a few hours! She still had a few more hours to go, too – this time of year, they had to go pretty far and high into the mountains to find ice. Ever since we'd met Kristoff, I sometimes amused myself by speculating how different things would have been if I'd been born into a family of ice harvesters instead of a royal family. Of course, as I would have put them out of business, maybe they would have feared my powers more than anyone; fortunately, as it turned out, I was a queen, not an ice machine, and their livelihood and passion was safe.

I stopped by another large window facing the mountain where Kristoff had said they were going today. It was a beautiful spring evening lit up by a glorious full moon. As I'd expected, there was no sign of anyone on their way back into town yet... unlike that night a few months ago. It was from this very window that I'd seen them rushing down from the mountains as if for their lives, never imagining the tale I would hear once I went down to meet them or what I would find the next day... No chance of that happening again tonight.

There it was again – that strange feeling that suddenly stole over me from time to time ever since we'd said good-bye. What was that all about? I walked on and eventually found myself in the royal portrait hall. Anna preferred the art gallery, with its paintings of interesting scenes you could imagine stories for, but I preferred this hall with the portraits of our ancestors whose legacy I had inherited. I gave them each a smile as I strolled passed but stopped before the newest portrait of Anna and Kristoff. Now _that_ had an exciting story behind it – it was a miracle it had ever gotten painted before the poor artist went insane! But you never would have known it from the beautiful finished product. The two of them made such a handsome couple...

I sighed as I looked at their picture and the feeling overcame me again. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, really – in fact, it was a great improvement over how I used to feel at times ever since Anna and Kristoff got married. I'd always been glad that my sister had found true love and that she and her new husband were so happy together. The family I had was enough for me, of course. The three of us had a great life together here in Arendelle, and I loved them both. Still, I did feel strangely lonely once in a while, like something was missing. Anna and I were still close – still making up for lost time – but she and Kristoff also had each other now, and I had no one else. What was it like to love someone that much?

I didn't need anyone else, though. Anna used to suggest I should give some of the kings or princes who'd been sending me marriage proposals, and gifts or invitations that were obviously supposed to lead to that, a chance, but I'd told her there was no point in giving them false hope. I didn't want a politically advantageous marriage. I certainly didn't want a lover. But I had to admit, it would have been nice to have a friend – someone I could confide in, who understood me, who could sympathize with what I'd been through. Someone who was... like me.

I would have expected to feel sad after losing him so quickly just after I'd found him. But this wasn't sadness. Not exactly. It was too sweet for that; I'd been able to open up to him even more than I could with my sister because I knew he would understand – an experience I'd never had before. Whenever I was feeling down, remembering the short time we'd spent together – how he wasn't the least bit afraid of me or my powers, how good it felt as he finally grew to trust me, the way my heart leaped when he finally told me his name – always cheered me up. Thinking about that day – picturing his face, recalling his voice, replaying our conversation – always made me feel light and peaceful inside, even though it was painful, too.

Was I worried about what had happened to him? Of course I was, but that was only a part of it. At least I never had to worry about his safety – nothing could harm him. But everything could hurt him. I wished I could assure him that, whatever happened, it wasn't his fault. What was going on? Was his secret still safe? Where had he gone? Had he found the cure he was searching for yet? Had he learned to control it? Was he alone, or was he with friends? Who else had he befriended after he left? Had he ever lost control again? If he had, where would he go? Would he come back here? That was the only question I could answer – I knew he wouldn't; if I'd understood him correctly, he never returned to a place once he left it. I would never know where he was or how he was doing, so it was only natural I should worry about him, but it was more than that.

If anyone had known the truth, they probably would have said I should be afraid _of_ him, not _for_ him. I still shuddered when I remembered the horrible, monstrous beast I'd seen that day, but I knew it wasn't really him. Power didn't make someone evil, no matter how frightening – I knew that better than anyone. If I ever saw him in that form again, I'd still be afraid, but more for him than for myself. Maybe this was safest for my kingdom, but I wished it didn't have to be.

I knew I missed him, but it was the way I missed him that felt strange. I knew I would never see him again, but it didn't matter when I remembered how eagerly he'd listened to my story, or how honored I'd been when he opened up to me. It was better to have only that one evening with him than never to have met him at all. The pleasure of knowing him was worth the pain of missing him.

I'd had less than a day to get to know him. At times, I felt angry that we'd had such a short time together, but that never lasted long. Especially whenever I started to wonder if he felt the same way.

I still felt lonely, but, at the same time, not lonely for the first time in my life. Growing up, I'd been lonely for my sister, and we'd fixed that, but this was a different sort of loneliness. I felt connected with another human being in a way I'd never been before.

More than anything, I just felt confused. Why couldn't I stop thinking about someone I'd met only once? It didn't happen often, but there was no denying it when it struck me. It didn't keep me awake at night or distract me from my duties as queen or make me mope around the castle quietly by myself or anything, but it was always there, knocking at the back of my mind. Life went on, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was busy, I was happy, but I couldn't forget him. Why? What was this?

I looked up and found that my wanderings had brought me to the library. I turned the doorknob and went inside, nodding at the maid who was just finishing up dusting. Once she left, I drifted towards the globe of the Earth on a table and spun it. "Where are you?" I whispered.

If only he'd told me more, maybe I wouldn't wonder about him so often. I couldn't blame him, but I couldn't resist trying to fill in the blanks, either. His accent was completely unfamiliar to me, but he spoke our language surprisingly fluently. That, plus the questions he asked and the conclusions he drew from my answers and his own observations, made me think he must be a great scholar, even before he told me he was a doctor. He was remarkably calm for someone who woke up stranded in the mountains, perfectly poised to freeze to death – obviously a familiar situation for him. He clearly wasn't royalty or nobility, but his manner was mild and sweet if quiet and reserved, like a true gentleman. His eyes were full of kindness, intelligence, and curiosity but also pain. Yet when he spoke of it, he spoke not like someone who was surrendering to a painful burden but like someone who judged me worthy to hear it. I knew he must have been strong and brave to have survived with such a curse for so long. But I'd noticed he was strong the first moment I saw him... and handsome...

"You're blushing!"

I jumped and gasped as I turned around towards the voice that had startled me. "Don't sneak up on me like that, Anna."

"I didn't," she said innocently. "I said 'Hi' when I came in and asked what you were doing in here, but you didn't hear me."

Unable to confirm or deny her claim, I just shook my head and said, "Oh, sorry," and took a step in the direction of the door, when she blocked my path.

"So, what are you doing?" she asked mischievously.

"Just thinking," I answered truthfully.

Anna let me pass but followed me out into the hallway. "About what?"

"The usual."

"Anything in particular?"

"Nothing important."

"Any_one_ in particular?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said with a shrug.

"I know who you're thinking about," Anna said with a smug grin.

I grinned back and asked her, "How would you know?"

"You've got That Look in your eyes again." (I could easily hear the capital letters.)

"I do not."

"Do, too."

"Why would I?"

"You tell me." Anna stepped in front of me again. "Come on, Elsa, tell me – who was he?"

I frowned as I shook my head. "I can't tell you, Anna." I had no right to share his secret with anyone, and that included my sister.

"Why not?" she persisted, as always.

"Because he asked me not to," I said for about the thousandth time since that day.

"Please, Elsa, it can't be that bad. I thought we weren't supposed to have secrets from each other anymore." She sounded hurt now.

"It's not my secret, it's his. And... it could put him in danger if anyone knew."

"I promise not to tell anyone." I grinned again and stared at her with my eyebrow cocked suspiciously until she admitted, "Okay, maybe I'm not the quietest person in Arendelle or the best at keeping secrets, but... it doesn't matter, you're right – I wouldn't want you to betray his trust."

"Thank you."

As we started walking again, Anna folded her arms and observed faux-nonchalantly, "He must have trusted you with something really big, huh?"

"He was a stranded traveler. I just helped him get home. That's all."

"Then why are you always thinking about him?"

"Me?" I said, laughing. "You're the one who's always asking about him." Anna couldn't deny this. As soon as he'd left, she'd begun bombarding me with questions about who he was and where he'd come from, just out of her own natural, insatiable curiosity. When I wouldn't tell her much, her wild imagination had interpreted my silence as reluctance to talk about him. When I couldn't tell her why or make her understand it wasn't that I didn't want to but that I couldn't, she'd drawn her own conclusions, which she'd teased me about nonstop for weeks. At first, I thought she'd given up, but she'd merely altered her strategy, leaving me in peace for weeks, only to launch a sneak attack when I appeared vulnerable.

"Because _you're _always thinking about him," said Anna.

"Am not."

"Are, too!"

"No, Anna, I'm really not," I said sincerely before she got carried away with that game. "I just... worry about him sometimes."

"Why?" Anna asked, sounding more serious than she usually did when she brought this up.

Since I didn't know the answer myself, what harm could it do? I wrapped my arms around my body, gripped them in both hands, and said slowly, "He was traveling from far away. He got lost. We talked. We became friends. I miss him. I just wish I knew that he was all right."

"Just 'friends'?"

"Yes, just friends," I said, sighing in frustration. Here we go again...

"Do you always blush when you think of your friends?"

"I blush when I remember your shoe landing in your wedding cake – does that count?"

"No changing the subject!"

"There _is_ no 'subject', Anna – just forget about him."

"Like you will?"

"I'll never forget him," I blurted out, not realizing I'd foolishly taken the bait until it was too late.

"I know," Anna said triumphantly. I tried to hurry ahead of her, but she grabbed my arm. "Oh, relax, Elsa, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's about time you fell in love."

I was about to jerk my arm away but found I actually didn't have the urge to make a furious, indignant exit this time. Instead, I dropped my arm, causing Anna to release her grasp, and said softly, "Don't be ridiculous, Anna. We've been through this – you can't fall in love with someone you just met."

Anna shook her head and wagged her finger, grinning from ear to ear. "No, you can't _marry_ someone you just met. How long does it take to fall for someone?" I had no answer, so I said nothing. Anna leaned forward and gave me a firm hug. When we let go, she said sweetly, "Don't worry – he'll be back," and winked once at me before flitting down the hall in her sprightly way, leaving me alone.

I was by a window that opened onto a balcony. I walked out and looked across the fjord where I'd seen his ship sail away, thinking about my sister's words. I hadn't even known him for a full day, but I'd learned a lot about him in that short time... You couldn't marry someone you'd only known for one day, but how much time did you need to fall in love?


End file.
